Two decades ago, state transportation planners were looking ahead when they plotted out a rail-tunnel route about 130 feet beneath Boston. Even though the state couldn’t afford to include the rail tunnel as part of the Big Dig, the designers left a space where they could add one later. The state still doesn’t have money to build the North-South Rail Link, the white whale of New England transportation. But a Boston zoning panel studying land-use rules for the waterfront should show the same kind of foresight as Big Dig planners by recommending protections for the underground route from encroachment. Someday, when the financial and political stars align to build the tunnel, efforts today to keep the route viable will pay off.

There have been three great ages of development in modern Boston. The first began after the Back Bay was filled in the late 19th century, a radical change that triggered a historic construction boom. The second came in the 1960s and ’70s, when a “high spine” of office towers — stretching from the financial district to the Pru — began to rise over an old town.

https://preservebostonswaterfront.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Preserve_Boston370-2b-copy.jpg00Site Adminhttps://preservebostonswaterfront.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Preserve_Boston370-2b-copy.jpgSite Admin2015-03-01 18:31:142015-03-03 16:56:57A New Age for an Old Town - Boston Globe Article